I’ll be coming home…next year?
An open response to anyone wondering when I’m coming home
Mateee! How are ya? Hope you’re keeping well! It’s been so long since we caught up. Damn, I miss you bud! Wish I could be there but my flights keep getting cancelled...again and again. It’s not looking good hey. Still waiting on refunds since April last year, not sure how many more flights I can afford, especially since almost all of them are getting cancelled last minute.
Honestly, I’ve basically given up trying to get home anytime soon. I miss Australia so bad, it’s been two and half years since I was last home, I really wanna see my family but the flight caps are making it impossible for us ex-pats to get flights. I’ve been hearing only business class tickets are flying, it seems price gouging is the norm these days (upwards of $5k). Scomo has really screwed us this time mate. The worst part is all I’m hearing that Aussies back home either have no idea how dire the situation is or are saying that it’s our fault because we ‘should have come home when we could have’. But darlin’, I’m telling ya, there was never any ‘could have’. We’ve all been buying flights since day dot but they’re just not flying. No one’s listening or no one cares, we don’t know, but all we know is that we’ve been forgotten about. We took one for the team and stayed put when asked, you know, let the desperate travellers get back first and all that. But now almost all of us are ‘the desperate ones’.
You asked me how I am – honestly, not too good. The sense of abandonment is overwhelming, survival mode is exhausting. It’s been a rough trot, I’m just trying to keep on keeping on. It’s very different over here, it’s not like back home, the virus is everywhere here. We’re in and out of hard quarantine every other week. We’ve been locked in the house for the majority of the year, that’s been hard on the mental health for sure. And yet, I’m trying to stay grateful because I know I’m one of the lucky ones. Working for myself, I’ve been able to pivot and maintain some sort of income. I have a roof over my head and a supportive partner here. And my health, thank god.
But, you know, many of the other Aussies stuck out here don’t have that. The stories I’m hearing are horrific – other Aussies stranded abroad have become jobless, homeless, broke and having mental breakdowns. And they still don’t know when they can get home. We don’t understand when Australia became so hard-hearted and uncompassionate. Honestly, I’ve never felt less proud to be Australian.
Can you do me a favour mate? Can you share this info with your friends, family, anyone? Pleaseee? Any public awareness will help us put pressure on our government to step up, remove the caps and finally let us come home. I’ll leave you some links to the campaigns and info below, hopefully they’ll help people understand how bad things really are and care enough to make a little noise on our behalf.
Thanks for listening sweets, really appreciate it. Hopefully, see you soon.
Big love, Bella xx
Petition: The Right To Return Home Campaign
Links + Resources: The Right To Return Home
